THE CHRISTIAN IN MODERN TIMES – THE LAST DAYS, AND HOW TO LIVE IN THEM – PRACTICAL ISSUES - PART 2
This next message continues on from Part 1 from a series given in England. I am trying to shed some light on our times so we can understand them better; and how to live in them.
[7]. THE LAST QUESTION. WHY ARE WE DELIVERED FROM THE DAY OF GOD’S WRATH?
I want to remind us of the verses already mentioned – {{1Thessalonians 5:9-10 “GOD HAS NOT DESTINED US FOR WRATH, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is, JESUS WHO DELIVERS US FROM THE WRATH TO COME.”}} Also, I want to add another verse – {{Romans 5:9 “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.”}} The Romans verse gives us the reason why we will never enter God’s wrath that is coming on the world. We are delivered from all God’s wrath because it has already been taken from our account. There is no more left for us. We are saved from that wrath.
Our sins could not be overlooked and the wrath of God had to deal with them. How did that happen? It is answered in the well known Isaiah verse – {{Isaiah 53:6 “All of us like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way but THE LORD HAS CAUSED THE INIQUITY OF US ALL TO FALL ON HIM. Then Isaiah added - Isaiah 53:5 but He was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.”}} The prophet is talking about substitution where the Lord Jesus took our place under the hand of a wrathful God. God’s wrath fell on Him and all the punishment against us was borne by the Lamb of God. He drained the cup of God’s wrath and not one drop remained. For those in Christ, not one inkling of God’s wrath is against us, because in God’s sight, we are fully righteous. That fact is confirmed by Paul in {{2Corinthians 5:21 “He made Him who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”}} Every single sin will be accounted for. All are guilty. What about your punishment? Behold, on the cross, “PAID” {{John 19:30 “When Jesus therefore had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” and He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.”}}
Consider for a moment the ark of Noah. The wrath of God fell from heaven on everyone who was living at that time, but the difference was the ark. God’s wrath fell on the sinful people, and it fell on the ark. In a sense it fell on those inside the ark, but the 8 inside were protected by the vessel, but the ones outside were unprotected. The ark encountered the wrath of God too, and it endured the wrath for the sake of the ones it was sheltering. The ark was covered inside and outside with pitch – means atonement – and it was this atonement that protected the redeemed inside. We are in Christ who is our Ark, our Atonement with God. There are some who claim that the Church must go through the Great Tribulation, at least the first half of it, for 3.5 years of the 7 years. Then they say the Church is raptured. That is a great error for Christ has taken all the wrath for us.
Back to verse 9. We see in all of this study that we are not appointed to wrath but to salvation. That means we look forward to salvation, our deliverance from this present evil world. We will not experience the wrath of God, but will know His unfathomable blessings, and eternity with our Saviour. Are you looking forward to His coming?
[8]. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE WRATH OF GOD, AND PERSECUTION AND TRIBULATION?
The wrath of God is His anger on an unrepentant sinner, and against sin itself, which is a response to an affront or outrage on the holiness of God. It is that wrath we have been speaking about so far. Persecution, however, comes from man, and is directed against something which certain people or groups don’t like, so they attack it. In the case of Christians, it is the opposition and mistreatment Christians face because they belong to God. Persecution does not come from God. Next, Tribulation or suffering is what all the human race faces because we are human beings in a sinful world. It means facing difficulties and tough times and hardships just because we are in the world and live lives in it. “Life is not a bed of roses”, someone said. Tribulation can come from God upon people or nations, but is reserved for the greatest of these which will be The Great Tribulation for 7 years after the Church is taken to heaven.
We say that people who become Christians look forward to great promises. There is the promise of God being with us forever. The Holy Spirit becomes our Guide, a Comforter and our Teacher. The Good shepherd feeds us and cares for us, and a place is reserved in heaven for us. We have eternal life. We have so many promises, but how many have heard in a message, that one of God’s promises is that we will suffer; that we will have persecution and difficulties. I have never heard a minister speak about that, or even mention that in gospel preaching. {{2 Timothy 3:12 “Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”}} Now if you want to avoid that uncomfortable experience, then be a worldly Christian and don’t worry too much about God. Go to church for a short time now and again on Sunday, and keep away from bible studies and prayer meetings. In other words, don’t live the life of a soldier for the Lord. The Lord never persecutes Christians, by the way.
[9]. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE WRATH OF GOD, AND THE DISCIPLINE OF GOD?
We want to see this difference between the wrath of God and discipline. Before you became a Christian, you were overshadowed by God’s wrath. It hung over you as those separated from the salvation of God. The situation is painted exactly in this verse – {{John 3:36 “He who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but THE WRATH OF GOD abides on him.”}} The Christian has no more wrath from God. The Lord Jesus Christ took the entire wrath of God on our behalf.
I want to point out that there is a vast difference between the wrath of God and discipline of God. Does God get angry with His saints? I think He might. However, He will not act towards us in wrath. Wrath is destined for sin and sinners, and is judgement, and we saw last time that we are not children of wrath, but of blessing. How then do we understand it when things are going bad for a Christian? Is this God punishing them? Should we only be in great peace and calm in blessing and prosperity in our lives? Is it God’s wrath we are feeling when things are seriously going against us? The answer to that is NO, because we have no part in the wrath of God. When things go wrong, are we on the receiving end of God? Well, we may be on the receiving end of God, but it is NOT His wrath! It may be discipline! What parent who loves his and her child will not discipline that child when necessary? It is biblical to discipline children – this is the critical passage on the correction/disipline of God for us -
{{Hebrews 12:5-11 and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him, for THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, and He scourges every son whom He receives.” It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with sons, for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them. Shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? They disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful, yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”}}
This was a very special truth the psalmist learned, and I think it was David who wrote it, because Psalm 119 is unnamed, but it sounds like a man after the heart of God wrote it, and David was a man after God’s own heart. There are three verses from Psalm 119 that deal with this theme of discipline, and God’s dealings with His servant. {{Psalm 119:67 “Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep Your word.” Psalm 119:68 “You are good, and do good. Teach me Your statutes.” Psalm 119:71 “IT IS GOOD FOR ME THAT I WAS AFFLICTED, that I may learn Your statutes.”}} David expressed a similar thought in Psalm 25 – {{Psalm 25:18 “Look upon my affliction and my trouble, and forgive all my sins.”}}
The Psalms are full of verses on affliction and God’s care for those in affliction, and this one shows how loving and caring God is towards the ones suffering – {{Psalm 22:24 “for He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted. Neither has He hidden His face from him, but when he cried to Him for help, He heard.”}} If God allows affliction for you, He loves you.
The Christian life is not a bed of roses as some preachers try to stress it is. It is anything but, if you want to be real for God. When the going is tough, how are you to understand that? How do we interpret that situation? Why does God allow us to have difficulties, even severe times of distress and hardship? We need to look at this very carefully. Are you struggling in business, or with finances, or with family and relationship problems and health problems? These can be physical, emotional and spiritual. What are the causes of these? I want to share what I think God has taught me, but I need to say I am not an expert in all this, but will share with you what I think God says to me about why Christians have difficulties. There are 4 main causes –
[REASON 1]. OUR CITIZENSHIP IN THE WORLD
Yes, our citizenship is in heaven, but we live in the world and are affected by national laws and crises, and we can take as an example a Christian farmer who is crippled by drought, just like the neighbouring farmer who is a heathen. That is not the wrath of God but these things can come on us and God will always have a purpose in allowing such things for His own children. It may be to move you to something else. We will all pay higher taxation as money is wasted by Governments. It is the age we live in. Christians die in earthquakes, and indeed, a number of them would have been on the Titanic and lost their lives there. This is not the wrath of God generally, or the discipline of God towards His chosen ones. It is just because we are in the world.
[REASON 2]. THE FATHER’S DISCIPLINE FOR HIS CHILDREN
This has been partly looked at in the Hebrews passage before, but we come to the practical side. God may be dealing with you for a certain reason. Remember the shepherd has the rod and uses it for the sheep that goes astray. What sort of shepherd would the man be if the sheep wandered off into danger and the shepherd said, “Too bad. Not my concern. The sheep chose that path and must learn to live with it.” We have a Good Shepherd and He loves us and wants our return when we stray, or have fallen into sin. Let me give you a scenario. A Christian may be employed and is handling money. Through temptation he or she might remove 30 or 40 dollars a week from the till, not enough to ring alarm bells. That is behaviour God will not tolerate and will move in discipline towards the child he loves. That discipline may take many forms from feeling utterly miserable and unprofitable, to things going wrong in the personal life, or even getting caught and punished. God is so gracious. Even in discipline He is so gracious.
[REASON 3]. THE GOOD SOLDIER ON EXERCISE
Australia used to have National Service where 18 year olds would be drafted into the army. If that happened today, and it would be a good idea in my opinion with so much youth crime, but we are too sloppy and undisciplined for that to happen, but if it did happen today, then the army would find itself with many slobby men - ones who sit around all day on their computer games doing nothing worthwhile, and partying at night and into their drugs. These men would get a real culture shock and it would do them so much good as they are made to exercise and develop a good physical and emotional routine and outlook on life. We are told to be good soldiers for Jesus Christ. {{2Timothy 2:3-5 “SUFFER HARDSHIP WITH ME AS A GOOD SOLDIER OF CHRIST JESUS. No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier. Also if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules.”}} God wants strong men and women for Him, not spineless jellyfish. He allows trials and tribulation, hardship and difficult times to come on us to develop us and strengthen us, and make us strong pillars in our stand for Him. The trees that face the strongest winds and the roughest conditions develop the strongest trunks.
How many of you welcome the tribulation you are given? We try to avoid it. Tribulation tends to be a very biblical word but the alternate meanings for the word are trial, suffering, pain, ordeal, distress, difficulty, trouble, problems, hardship. Tribulation has a very real purpose as these verses show – {{Romans 5:2-5 “through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we exult in hope of the glory of God. Not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that TRIBULATION BRINGS ABOUT PERSEVERANCE, and perseverance, proven character, and proven character, hope, and hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”}}
[REASON 4]. GODLY LIVING PRODUCES PERSECUTION
We come to the last one which we have looked at already. Matthew Poole in his Commentary wrote – [[“Such is the disposal of Divine Providence, such the malice of the men in the world, (though not every individual person), yet it is the usual lot of them who will keep a pure faith and a good conscience, to suffer persecution in some kind or other, either in their persons, or reputation, or estates. Men may live profanely, or may be morally honest men, and be safe enough; BUT if they will profess faith in Christ, or love to him in keeping his commandments, they will be exposed to troubles: the world will not endure men to live in peace, who will not live as they live, and believe as they believe.”]]
In this country, and in mine, there are discrimination laws but these can be circumvented in the case of persecution against Christians. Because a person is a Christian, the opposition to him or her is natural, because the people in the world are in the other camp, and the evil persecutes the righteous. The flesh persecutes the Spirit. There is a war going on you are not even aware of. A Christian can be overlooked in a promotion in his job; or be shuffled down the line when it comes to favouritism because he may not drink with the bosses or attend their riotous parties, or speak their language; or be in the “in group” and is avoided in subtle ways. The offence of the cross has not ceased, and indeed, I think it is increasing. {{Matthew 5:10-12 “BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN PERSECUTED FOR THE SAKE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men cast insults at you, and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely on account of Me. Rejoice, and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”}}
This persecution that comes upon you is not the wrath of God, or the discipline of God, but the result of living godly. If you aren’t facing it, then how are you living? There will be nothing better than to hear at your entry to the Lord’s presence, “Well done, you good and faithful servant.” You may have accomplished much and devoted all your time to your job, rising up in the ranks. You may have achieved great sporting awards or cultural awards and spent much time in travel. You may be famous in this world, but in the end, only what’s done for Christ will last. All the rest will be burnt up and count for nothing.
By and by when I look on His face,
Beautiful face, thorn shadowed face;
By and by when I look on His face,
I'll wish I had given Him more.
More, so much more,
More of my life than I e'er gave before
By and by when I look on His face,
I'll wish I had given Him more.
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In the light of that heavenly place,
Light from His face, beautiful face;
In the light of that heavenly place,
I'll wish I had given Him more.
More, so much more,
Treasures unbounded for Him I adore,
By and by when I look on His face,
I'll wish I had given Him more.
To close, it is so important that we live in the light and power of the Holy Spirit in a world that is becoming increasingly sinful and demonic and anti-Christian. We have no part in the wrath of God that is coming upon the world, but we may have a part in the discipline of God when it is needed; and persecution and tribulation will be our lot as followers of the Lamb.
In the next message we will look at arming ourselves for battle.
ronaldf@aapt.net.au
